uld
not unglue his eyes from them. At first he stared at them stupidly.
Not for some minutes did his mind grasp that they represented great
wealth; and even when the temptation grew, it whispered no more than
that here was money--maybe even a hundred pounds--but enough, at all
events, added to his savings, to purchase the cottage at home, and
make him and Jeanne happy for the rest of their lives.

"His fingers felt around to the clasps. One by one he detached the
necklaces and slipped them into his trousers' pocket.

"He also managed to pull off one of the rings; but found this a more
difficult matter, because the fingers were swollen somewhat with the
salt water. So he contented himself with one, and ran back to the
lighthouse to give the alarm to his comrades.

"When his comrades saw the body there was great outcry upon the
jewels on its fingers; but none attempted to disturb them, and Lucien
kept his own counsel. They carried the poor thing to a store-chamber
at the base of the lighthouse, and there before nightfall they had
collected close upon thirty bodies. There was much talk in the
newspapers afterwards concerning the honesty of our poor Bretons, who
pillaged none of the dead, but gave up whatever they found.
The relatives and the great shipping company subscribed a fund, of
which a certain small portion came even to Ile Lezan to be
administered by me.

"The poor lady with the necklaces? If you read the accounts in the
newspapers, as no doubt you did, you will already have guessed her
name. Yes, in truth, she was your great soprano, whom they called
Madame Chiara, or La Chiara: so modest are you English, at least in
all that concerns the arts, that when an incomparable singer is born
to you she must go to Italy to borrow a name. She was returning from
South Africa, where the finest of the three necklaces had been
presented to her by subscription amongst her admirers. They say her
voice so ravished the audiences at Johannesburg and Pretoria that she
might almost, had she willed, have carried home the great diamond
they are sending to your King. But that, no doubt, was an invention
of the newspapers.

"For certain, at any rate, the necklace was a superb one; nor do I
speak without knowledge, as you shall hear. Twenty-seven large
stones--between each a lesser stone--and all of the purest water!
The other two were scarcely less magnificent. It was a brother who
came over and certified the body; fo